The present method of obtaining edible bird's nest involves collecting and harvesting nests of wild swiftlets in their natural habitats such as mountain caves and limestone cliffs for consumption causing irreversible disruptions and damages to the dwindling populations of endemic wild swiftlets. Poachers have been known to raid established roosts of protected and endangered species of swiftlets in national parks and wildlife preserves at night to steal edible bird's nests. The saying, “early bird takes the worm” and “finders-keepers” epitomizes the mentality of poachers as in the wild the first to strike takes all, leaving nothing for late corners. Such that nest poachers indiscriminately destroys un-hatched eggs, killing swiftlets chicks too young to fly to safety, disrupting their reproductive life-cycle, threatening their very survival such that some species of swiftlets in South East Asia are fast approaching extinction. As with the rest of the global wildlife trade dealing in protected and endangered species of plants, animals and related wildlife products, the supply chain of the lucrative bird's nest trade is steeped in a traditional hierarchy of shadowy contacts cloaked in secrecy and black-market deals. Dealers are unable to proof the legality of their supply sources. Unscrupulous dealers have been known to pass off imitation products and fakes as genuine edible bird's nests. Some nest-processors employed harmful chemicals and detergents in the treatment of nests to improve the market value of the commodity to the detriment of consumers.
The birds called Cave Swiftlets or Swiftlets are contained within the four genera of Aerodramus (formerly Collocalia), Hydrochous, Collocalia and Schoutedenapus. They form the collocaliini tribe within the family Apodidae. Geographically the genus Aerodramus comprises around 30 species with a habitat range covering southern Asia, south pacific islands and north eastern Australia located within the tropical and sub-tropical regions. Edible bird's nests are derived from cave swiftlets of the genus Aerodramus and/or Collocalia. In particular four species comprising A. unicolor, A. fuciphagus, A. maximus and A. germani are the most prized. A. unicolor and A. fuciphagus (also known as Collocalia fuciphaga) produces high grade white nests while A. maximus (C. maxima) produces lower grade black nests containing more feathers, particles and other impurities.
Scientific classification of these avian species being:                Kingdom: Animalia        Phyllum: Chordata        Class: Aves        Order: Apodiformes        Family: Apodidae        Genus: Aerodramus         Species: A. unicolor, A. fuciphagus, A. maximus and A. germani         Binominal name: Aerodramus unicolor, Aerodramus fuciphagus, Aerodramus maximus and Aerodramus germani         Common name: Indian Swiftlet, Edible-nest Swiftlet, Black-nest Swiftlet and German's Swiftlet        
The Collacaliini tribe of swiftlets comprises the: Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus); Indian Swiftlet (A. unicolor); Black-nest Swiftlet (A. maximus); German's Swiftlet (A. germani); Waterfall Swift (Hydrochous gigas); Glossy Swiftlet (Collocalia esculenta); Cave Swiftlet (C. linchi); Pygmy Swiftlet (C. troglodytes); Seychelles Swiftlet (A. elaphrus); Mascarene Swiftlet (A. francicus); Philippine Swiftlet (A. meamsi); Moluccan Swiftlet (A. infuscatus); Mountain Swiftlet (A. hirundinaceus); White-rumped Swiftlet (A. spodiopygius); Australian Swiftlet (A. terraereginae); Himalayan Swiftlet (A. brevirostris); Indo-chinese Swiftlet (A. rogersi); Volcano Swiftlet (A. vulcanorum); Whitehead's Swiftlet (A. whiteheadi); Bare-legged Swiftlet (A. nuditarsus); Mayr's Swiftlet (A. orientalis); Palawan Swiftlet (A. palawanensis); Mossy-nest Swiftlet (A. salangana); Uniform Swiftlet (A. vanikorensis); Palau Swiftlet (A. pelewensis); Guam Swiftlet (A. bartschi); Caroline Islands Swiftlet (A. inquietus); Atiu Swiftlet (A. sawtelli); Polynesian Swiftlet (A. leucophaeus); Marquesan Swiftlet (A. ocistus); Papuan Swiftlet (A. papuensis); Scarce Swift (Schoutednapus myoptilus); Schouteden's Swift (S. schoutendeni).
Swiftlets lives in flocks along tropical coastal areas and are aerial insectivores. The average body length of a swiftlet is 9 centimeters, about half the size of a swallow. Swiftlets have a shorter and rectangular shaped tail while swallows has a longer forked tail. The A. unicolor measuring around 12 centimeters in length is mainly dark brown above and paler brown below. A. fuciphagus is smaller measuring 9 centimeters in length and weighs about 15 to 18 grams with a band of brownish gray feathers across the rump. A. maximus is larger with a wing-span of 13 centimeters and weighs 28 grams. Its lower legs have a row of small feathers.
Most swiftlets have a characteristic shape with a short tail and very long swept-back wings resembling a crescent or a boomerang for fast flight with a wide gape and small beak surrounded by bristles for catching insects in flight. The flight of some species is characterized by a distinctive “flicking” action. Swiftlets have sharp claws protruding forward for clinging securely onto vertical cliffs and roosts on vertical cliffs or walls of caves high above. Adult swiftlets would rest and sleep while perched vertically on cave walls, supporting their bodies with sharp claws. They have well developed salivary glands which are able to secrete large amounts of saliva which solidifies in contact with air, forming the main agent in the building of their nests. Swiftlets builds their nests three times a year, not for the purpose of habitation but to foster their young. Each nest is only used once and is abandoned once young swiftlets have learnt to fly. Nests are attached to the rocky walls of humid limestone caves hundreds of meters high making harvesting of nests an extremely risky profession. Many collectors were known to have fallen to their death from flimsily constructed climbing apparatus used for harvesting edible bird's nests.
Due to the inherent shortness of their legs swiftlets are not able to stand upright, perch horizontally on level surface, or take off from stationary positions by flapping their wings like other species of birds. They must perch vertically at height by gripping the sheer cliff or cave wall with sharp claws. To take off swiftlets releases their claw grips, drop from the vertical clinging-perching surface at height, spread their wings to glide before flying away. The lowest, minimum height that swiftlets will ever “land” or settle down to perch vertically is one meter above level surface. Anything lower and they will not be able to drop, glide and fly away safely. And if they ever land on level ground in the wild, they are as good as dead. Certain death awaits fallen and stranded swiftlets as they are attacked and devoured by cave creatures such as snakes, cockroaches, crickets, centipedes, crabs, ants, etc. or, other carnivorous creatures. Swiftlets only adapt horizontal positions during the nesting season: mating, eggs laying, incubating eggs, brooding and feeding young chicks; all at great heights.
The average life span of swiftlets is about 15 to 18 years. During the breeding season, all the species' salivary glands expand to produce the special sticky saliva for binding twigs and other detritus together for building the nest, in particular male swiftlets which uses thick saliva to construct the white shiny nest. The saliva is produced by a pair of lobed salivary glands beneath the tongue of parent birds. It is also called nest-cement. This glutinous nest-cement dries fast in contact with air. The nest is a shallow half-moon cup stuck to the vertical cave wall into which eggs are laid. A. fuciphagus and A. unicolor each lays a clutch of 2 eggs. The eggs are incubated for around 3 weeks before hatching. Young fledgling leaves the nest in 2 weeks but remains near it, clinging to the cavity for another 2 weeks without flying.
A pair of A. maximus takes an average of 30 days to lay one egg and 25 days to incubate the egg. The chicks needs at least 45 days to grow large enough to fly and takes 4 months for juvenile birds to mature. The breeding cycle of Black-nest swiftlets from its ability to fly to building its own nest is about one year. Residing mainly in the Niah Caves and Mulu Caves in Borneo, A. maximus has three breeding seasons in one year. Avian census by Banks in 1935 recorded 1.7 million nests in the Niah Caves compared to 65,000 nests in a DANIDA/SWMPI census in 2002, a decrease of 96%.
Swiftlets usually lays not more than two eggs each season. Generally, two collections are made. The first takes place early in the breeding season before the swiftlets lays their eggs. The birds then make another nest in which they finally lay their eggs. After the young have fledged, the second collection is made. Breeding seasons are particular to different species and the different caves in which the birds roost. At Gomantong Caves (Sabah, Malaysia), the two edible nests swiftlet species have different breeding times. For the black-nest swiftlet, the first collection should take place no later than April or May, otherwise the birds will not have time to build another nest. The second harvest then takes place in September and October. The more valuable white-nest swiftlets nests are initially collected in February, and again in June and July. The breeding patterns of the birds are not rigid and must be closely monitored to accommodate any observable changes in their reproductive behavior.
Quoting a paragraph from National Geographic, January 1990 entitled “Nests Gatherers of Tiger Caves:” “A leading authority on the history and chemistry of bird's nests, Yun-Cheung Kong, professor of biochemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, believes that swiftlet's nests have been eaten in China for 1,500 years. According to Dr. Kong, the discovery of Tang-dynasty porcelain near Niah Cave in north-western Borneo suggests that importation of the delicacy goes back as far as A.D. 700. Early in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) a eunuch named Cheng Ho made seven voyages through South East Asia in command of an imperial fleet. Among his instructions from the emperor were to note the diet and produce of these foreign parts. Cheng Ho's route touched all the major bird's nest producing sites of today, and it is possible he brought back samples to present to the imperial court. Some authorities credit Cheng Ho with introducing foreign nests into China, but no written record of this event has been discovered. Dr. Kong has found that the nests contain a water-soluble glyco-protein that promotes cell division within the immune system.” Such substances may be used in the development of AIDS treatments as a way to promote cell division in the immune system.
Historically, ever since the voyages of Chinese Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho) to the “southern seas” (South China Sea) 700 years ago; and the establishment of barter trading of Ming Dynasty Chinese ceramics, porcelain wares, silk, exquisite handicrafts, etc. in exchange for tropical products such as edible bird's nests, spices, pepper, camphor, sandal-woods, rattan, belian (iron wood), etc., edible bird's nests from the island of Borneo (in particular the Niah Caves), have been closely associated with the imperial court, royalty and the Emperor of China. Consumption of edible bird's nests in China dates back 1,000 years ago and has been ingrained into the psyche of the orient as a special food fit for kings. Gifts and presents made of edible bird's nests in family gatherings to celebrate auspicious occasions and festive seasons have become a status symbol, a sign of respect for elders and a fashionable trend in Asia. Demand for this scarce commodity out-strips supply, which conversely, has been shrinking due to poaching, non-sustainable harvesting and destruction of wild habitats.
Scientifically and medicinally, demand for this commodity may be explained by the close relationship of edible bird's nests with the enzyme neuraminidase. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,408 Flashner et al teaches a method of extracting extra-cellular neuraminidase from a micro-organism Arthobacter sialophilum sp. nov. found in edible bird's nests, regurgitated by the swiftlets Collocalia. This enzyme is used for treatment or regression of solid tumors and is useful in immunological and birth control investigation and applications. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,516 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,661 Roy et al teaches a method of using antigens of sialic acid in detecting cancer. Sialic acids are derivatives of neuraminic acid which is in turn derived from edible nests. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,918 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,748 Rizza et al teaches a method for preparing neuraminidase. (Search term: Collocalia)
Swiftlets have been found to be attracted by bird calls to settle in human dwellings. Domestication, commercialized breeding, rearing and managed husbandry of swiftlets in a specially equipped highly productive swiftlets farm or edible nest production facility dedicated to producing edible bird's nest on a commercial scale will prevent extinction and enhance the survival of wild species of swiftlets by providing an alternative supply of farmed edible bird's nests in the market, reducing and stabilizing prices of the commodity and making illegal harvesting of wild nests unattractive to poachers.
The relatively tasteless nests are harvested and prepared for cuisine in soup mixed with chicken, spices, and other flavors as an oriental gastronomic delight with supposed aphrodisiac properties. Only a few species are suitable and it is those species whose nests are made purely or almost purely of saliva that are most prized and sought after, especially the genus Aerodramus and/or Collocalia (in particular the species A. fuciphagus, A. unicolor, A. maximus and A. germani). Desirable qualities of edible nests comprises: color, shape, shimmer or glint (buying); swell capacity, sponginess (preparation prior to cooking); aroma, texture, taste (eating); etc. are based on ingrained traditional beliefs, perceptions and oriental values inculcated from young handed over from generation to generation.
Quoting a report from The Sunday Tribune, India (Dec. 2, 2001) entitled “They are the Creatures of the Caves” the vagaries of the natural eco-system and the perils cave swiftlets faces daily are illustrated in vivid details: “Deep in the world's great cave systems, where light never penetrates, live a variety of animals to whom eyesight has become an irrelevance. These caves, over the eons, have been carved out by streams that wander through them. Water, too, ornamented the chambers inside these enormous caves. Charged with calcium as it seeped through roof over millennia, it created fantastically sculpted stalactites and stalagmites. Most of the larger animals, like cave racer snakes, that live in the dark environment of these underground galleries feed on cave swiftlets that nest and roost here by night and bats who come here for shelter during day.
Cave swiftlets are birds related to swifts, some of which are known for their great speed. Swiftlets are famous for their nest which they construct with their saliva. These nests are the main ingredient of birds' nest soup, a delicacy in some of the countries of the Far-east.
Journeys in and out of the caves are always fraught with dangers both for swiftlets and the bats. Cave racer snakes take full advantage of rushing in and out by these flying creatures. Waiting on the cave walls, these reptiles are ever ready to pluck a flying-meal from mid-air.
Fully equipped to navigate in pitch darkness, these snakes follow well-worn, rippled ribbons of polished bat-guano (bat excrement) into the deep recesses of the caves, and can climb the walls to reach bird nests, where they prey upon eggs and chicks too. More unexpectedly, they coil around stalactites, stalagmites and rocky projections at narrow points in the cave passages, places where traffic flow is restricted and flying animals must slow their flight. The snakes hang out into the void with mouths agape and snatch at anything that comes close. It is thought that air-pressure waves from the flapping wings are detected by the snakes, although the snakes have also been heard to make mewing sounds—an unusual thing for a snake to do—which might have something to do with echolocation, a common way in which cave animals find prey.
The caves are also home to hunting spiders, which, like many other troglodytes, are blind. They run about with their first pair of legs, which are covered with sensory hairs, held out in front like antennae. With these, they can detect the movements of the smaller cave crickets.
The cave crickets themselves grow to monstrous proportions, and one of the most spectacular predators is a giant with huge legs and muscular jaws that can tear a cave swiftlet chick apart, even in the nest high above the cave floor. One specimen has been seen to take a swiftlet egg in its jaws and smash it against the rock and eat it.
In the cave streams that gouge rills and ridges between the bat dung, cave crabs and giant toads battle for injured fledglings. Two crabs might tear a chick in half. A related species, deep in the caves, has lost all pigment, has reduced eyes and possesses long legs with which it can crawl about the caves like an amphibious spider. Long-legged centipedes, multi-legged cave earwigs and shimmering golden cockroaches complete the horrible picture.
Outside, the entrances of the caves are patrolled by bat hawks, dark peregrine-sized raptors that take advantage of the comings and goings at dawn and dusk. They, too, wait and watch, placing themselves at a point of plenty, ready to take advantage of the superabundance of prey. At dawn, the swiftlets leave en masse to feed by day and the bats return to roost. At dusk, it is the reverse, and the bat hawks are ready to pounce. They swoop in at an angle across the cave mouth and tear through the emerging and returning flocks. Every morning and evening there is a pandemonium as bats and swifts, both pursued by hawks, change shifts. At twilight, the bats stream out and the swiftlets, diving a spiral from a great height to avoid the waiting predators, fly in. (Note: such aerial phenomena may be witnessed in the national parks of Borneo such as Mulu, Niah and Gomantong Caves)
If it were not for the bats and the birds, this remarkable community would not exist. They collect from the surrounding forest and provide enough food to support a cave floor fauna that is most likely larger than that on the floor of the forest itself.” Unquote.
The above narrative feature best describes the vagaries of the natural eco-system and the mortal predatory threats that swiftlets faces in their natural cave habitats, fraught with numerous dangers and hazards; thus the extremely high mortality rate in particular chicks, fledglings and year-old swiftlets. In addition to natural predation, the greatest threat may be posed by disruptions to the breeding cycle due to the indiscriminate activities of humans including edible nests poachers.
Quoting a photo-caption from page 130 of the National Geographic, entitled “Nests Gatherers of Tiger Caves”: “Suspected thieves at Phi Phi Island, attracted by big profits on the black market for the nests, face six months to a year in jail if convicted. Swiftlet chicks tossed on to a beach in Satun Province may be the victims of such greed.” One picture showed 3 alleged poachers chained together. Another photograph depicted dead chicks and broken egg shells. Quoting a paragraph from page 133: “In a nearby province men working for another employer refused to enter a cave after a climber had fallen to his death, for fear of meeting the dead nest gatherer's ghost. This gave the swiftlets time to lay their eggs, and when the gatherers did return, they spilled the eggs and young birds in order to take the nests. I saw hundreds of newly hatched swiftlets dying on the cave floor, among broken eggs, with cockroaches moving in for the feast.”
Quoting another report from National Geographic.com (Aug. 22, 2002) by a group of birders cum nature conservationists monitoring Indian swiftlets at Vengurla Rocks, located in the Arabian Sea; seven miles offshore Maharashtra State, India entitled “Taste for Swiftlet's Edible Nest is Lowering Its Numbers”: “Poachers no longer wait for the chicks to fledge before collecting the nests, which has dramatically decreased the swiftlets' population. Naturalists are concerned that this species may become extinct in five to ten years if the current rates of exploitation are not checked.
As they walked toward the caves, they saw a large number of swiftlets sweeping through the sky above them. On reaching the top of a cliff, they saw birds disappearing into the ground. Closer investigation revealed an opening to a large cave. Inside the dimly lit cavern they were amazed to see bamboo scaffolding built along its wall, a sign that poachers have discovered this remote haven.
When he reached the entrance, he saw thousands of edible-nest swiftlets nesting in the cave's dark recesses. Nests were constructed from about three feet from the ground all the way to the roof. The nest density varied from 20 per square yard to 40 per square yard, resulting in a conservative estimate of 3,000 nests. All the nests were attended by swiftlets that frequently entered and exited the cave, navigating by echolocation and occasionally dashing against the birders. The nests were pearly white, shiny, sticky, and spongy. From the near-complete state of the nests, the birders concluded that eggs would be laid in just a few days. As the birders made their way back to Niwati-Medha for the night, they were extremely concerned about nest poaching and the destruction of eggs and chicks.”
As a result of concerted actions by conservationists and local villagers; poachers and middle-men were apprehended, poached edible nests confiscated; the nexus of the illegal wildlife trade stopped; Vengula Rocks was declared a protected area and the family to which the edible nest swiftlets belongs to, Apodidae, was declared protected by the Indian government. (Source: National Geographic.com; Aug. 22, 2002.)
Such are the vagaries of nature and dangers posed by human activities; in comparison with a farmed environment where the security and safety of swiftlets shelters are ensured; breeding habitats devoid of predatory enemies and human threats; and a plentiful supply of food and water are provided in exchange for their abandoned nests. To this end the swiftlets farm 113, 23 and swiftlets shelters 11, 14, 100, 200 and 365 of present invention provides a safe haven and wildlife sanctuary including ample food and water where the swiftlets, their edible nests, eggs and chicks may be protected by armed Gurkha guards and safe from poachers, thieves, nest robbers and unwanted intruders. A paradise! Captive breeding programs for animals including birds and fish have brought back many species from the brink of extinction and restored wild populations. Such a program may be used to establish a colony of swiftlets in a newly constructed production facility, or a new extension of an existing production facility, or to restore wild populations.
All swiftlets were previously classified together under Collocalia spp., however, those capable of echolocation were later separately reclassified under Aerodramus spp. Swiftlets of the Collocalia spp. are not capable of echolocation. Edible nests swiftlets comprising the species of Aerodramus fuciphagus are sub-divided into six sub-species: A. f. fuciphagus; A. f. inexpectatus; A. f. dammermani; A. f. micans; A. f. vestitus and A. f. perplexus. Aerodramus fuciphagus is also known by the synonym Collocalia fuciphaga. The geographical distribution of these sub-species in South East Asia is as listed below:                A. f. fuciphagus: Java, Bali and the western Lesser Sunda Islands.        A. f. inexpectatus: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, vagrant to Burma.        A. f. dammermani: Flores, known from only a single specimen        A. f. micans: eastern Lesser Sunda (Sumba, Savu and Timor)        A. f. vestitus: Sumatra and Borneo, sometimes considered to be a separate species, brown-rumped swiftlets, Aerodramus vestitus/or Collocalia vestita.         A. f. perplexus: Maratua Archipelago off eastern Borneo        Germain's Swiftlets (Aerodramus germani) with two subspecies A. g. germani and A. g. amerchanus, were included with the edible-nest-swiftlets previously, but are now often considered to be a separate species. Also known as German's Swiftlets, they occur in the Malay Peninsula, central Thailand, coastal Vietnam and Cambodia, Hainan, northern Borneo and parts of the Philippines.        
In general, swiftlets measures 11 to 12 cm long and weigh 15 to 18 grams. The plumage is blackish-brown above, paler on the under-parts. The rump is slightly paler than the rest of the upper-parts. The tail is slightly forked and the wings are long and narrow. The bill and feet are black. The subspecies A. f. micans is paler and greyer while A. f. vestitus is darker with a rump that is less obviously paler. The bracket-shaped nest is white, translucent and is made of layers of hardened saliva attached to the cave rock. It measures about 6 cm across with a depth of 1.5 cm and a weight of about 14 grams. Two white, oval, non-glossy eggs are laid.
Swiftlets chicks are born blind, featherless and remain so for up to 20 days. The young begin eating solid insect bolus feed at 7-9 days old, and drinking at 10 days old. Nesting occurs for 5 weeks. During this time the chicks are fed every 30 minutes with about 1.7 g of insect bolus from both the parents and fledging occurs at 3 months old. Fostering meal formula for orphaned chicks may comprise a mixture of mashed milk, dry biscuits (Marie) and hard boiled eggs. These are fed every 3 hours together with 1-4 mm of water mixed with glucose, vitamins and minerals. (Source: Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia)
The majority of bird species on earth such as chicken, ducks, etc. and other farmed poultry stand upright while foraging, feeding, walking, running, makes their nests and breed on horizontal surfaces on level ground, floors of shelters or level surfaces of structures. However, birds of the avian species comprising swifts and swiftlets lack such a universal ability to stand upright, and are incapable of self-propelled movement across level ground or horizontal surfaces. They attach themselves high up on sheer cliffs and vertical walls of caves to roost. Swiftlets cling to the uneven, jagged, pitted, craggy, pock-marked, calloused and roughened surfaces of vertical walls high up, seeking out small ledges, concave faces, crevices, cavities, hollows, concavities; protrusions, indentations, extensions sticking out from the cave walls; upon which to anchor their body and their nests firmly and securely.
They have adapted themselves well to a life of living in the vertical dimension and the overhead dimension; clinging vertically onto the high walls to rest, sleep and breed. Attaching their nests securely to and bringing up their young high up on the vertical caves walls and nesting panels 69; including from overhead cave ceiling, stalactites, ceiling beams 193 and overhead nesting panels 196 of the shelter; even building into a concavity, dome shaped chamber in the overhead ceiling—at times, clinging and dangling with their bodies hanging upside down. In fact, anywhere, on any calloused vertical or overhead substrate on which they can get a firm foothold/or claw grips. This is an ecological niche, a realm that swifts and swiftlets have evolved to occupy over the eons. Chicken, ducks and farmed poultry live and breed in the horizontal dimension, on the floor or a large area of flat level surfaces. Like the majority of terrestrial animals on earth, their living space is in the horizontal dimension; capable of standing upright and propelling themselves across the relatively flat areas they occupy. Unlike small light-weight swiftlets, they are not capable of and do not live or breed from the vertical walls/or hanging upside down from the overhead ceilings.